Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and maneuverable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Brigs fell out of use with the arrival of the steam ship because they required a relatively large crew for their small size and were difficult to sail into the wind. They are not to be confused with a brigantine, which has different rigging. A brig is distinct from a three-masted ship by virtue of only having two masts.

Rigging

In sailing, a full-rigged brig is a vessel with two square rigged masts (fore and main). The main mast of a brig is the aft one. To improve maneuverability, the mainmast carries a small (gaff rigged) fore-and-aft sail.

Brig sails are named after the masts to which they are attached: the mainsail; above that the main topsail; above that the main topgallant sail; and occasionally a very small sail, called the royal, is above that. Behind the main sail there is a small fore-and-aft sail called the spanker or boom mainsail (it is somewhat similar to the main sail of a schooner). On the foremast is a similar sail, called the trysail. Attached to the respective yards of square-rigged ships are smaller spars, which can be extended, thus lengthening the yard, thus receiving an additional sailing wing on each side. These are called studding sails, and are used with fair and light wind only. The wings are named after the sails to which they are fastened, i.e. the main studding sails, main top studding sails, and the main top gallant studding sails, etc.

Brig (disambiguation)

A Brig may refer to:

Places

Other uses

Brig (district)

The district of Brig is a district in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. It has a population of 26,303 (as of 31 December 2014).

Municipalities

It includes the following municipalities:

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, an Eagle with dragon's tail displayed Sable, crowned, beaked, langued, membered and tailed Gules.

Demographics

Brig has a population (as of December 2014) of 26,303. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (21,176 or 91.9%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (434 or 1.9%) and French is the third (316 or 1.4%). There are 17 people who speak Romansh.

As of 2008, the gender distribution of the population was 48.5% male and 51.5% female. The population was made up of 10,437 Swiss men (42.6% of the population) and 1,449 (5.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 11,126 Swiss women (45.4%) and 1,512 (6.2%) non-Swiss women.

Of the population in the district 9,899 or about 42.9% were born in Brig and lived there in 2000. There were 7,813 or 33.9% who were born in the same canton, while 2,196 or 9.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 2,463 or 10.7% were born outside of Switzerland.